FCC Reform

The Federal Communications Commission announced the agenda for its September open meeting. In the September 30, 2021 meeting, the FCC will:

The repercussions of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction are still being felt as waiver requests for winning bids roll in and disputes over whether or not certain bidders were qualified in the first place rage on.

In 2017, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his intention to dismantle the FCC’s hard-won network neutrality regulation. The 2015 net neutrality order owed its existence to the millions who submitted comments to the FCC demanding commonsense protection from predatory internet service providers (ISPs). After Pai’s announcement, those same millions flooded the FCC’s comment portal, actually overwhelming the FCC’s servers and shutting them down.

Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind have been left behind in an increasingly digital communications world. These Americans are now fighting for their human right to have equal access to this world. Countless individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind — and their families and friends — have flooded the Federal Communications Commission's docket with pleas for functionally equivalent communications. Consumers are complaining that relay technologies have continued to stagnate as mainstream communications technologies have flourished.

The Federal Communications Commission wants SpaceX to give up a portion of the $885.51 million in broadband funding it was awarded in a reverse auction in December 2020. SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband division was one of the biggest winners in the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grants announced in Ajit Pai's last full month as FCC chairman.

Broadcasters are pressing the Federal Communications Commission to change course and not force TV and radio stations to pay for a portion of FCC broadband data collection, from which they do not claim to benefit.

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has appointed three additional member organizations to serve on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) during its current term.The three additional member organizations along with their primary and alternate representatives are:

Congressional leaders and advocacy group Media 2070 urged the Federal Communications Commission to examine how policy decisions and programs have disparately harmed Black Americans and other communities of color in a letter to Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on June 28.

Key Republicans are warming to an idea that was once anathema to the party—leveling taxes on big American companies to pay for internet subsidy programs. An idea from GOP Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr to force tech companies to pay into a pool of money used to fund broadband programs is gaining steam with some key lawmakers, including GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Republican support of taxing Big Tech could help shore up the struggling Universal Service Fund; Commissioner Carr argues that Congress should direct the companies that benefit from using internet networks

Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced a twelve-month extension of the original three-year term of the Federal Communications Commission’s current Native Nations Communications Task Force.